Hearts of pieces and minds of peace

A Story by Joyram

Jennifer and Carter love each other. Strangely they both love someone else as well. After encountering the bitter beatings of life, they land up in India. Did they renew their love? Read the story.

Carter and Jennifer, living in Sanfransisco, loved each other so much. Even at the age of 17, they often. They were a shade above mediocre. Later, they had their graduation. Both took up their profession, Carter, as a Human resource consultant, and Jennifer, as a software engineer. Somehow Carter came in contact with another girl, Linda who loved him so much. Seeing her stunning beauty, Carter could not say no to her and reciprocated her love. However, he continued to love Jennifer to whom he was attracted for a long. As a strange coincidence, Jennifer too came in contact with one young man, Peter, who was not so handsome. But Jennifer was attracted by his exemplary behavior and mannerism. She somehow fell in love with him and as luck would have it, Peter too reciprocated her love. As in the case of Carter, Jennifer too could not stop loving Carter. So in effect, two lovers were having two lovers each. Neither Carter nor Jennifer revealed this fact to the other. One day when Carter and Jennifer were having dinner in a restaurant, Jennifer told Carter that she wanted to share with him, a piece of shocking news. On hearing this Carter too told her that he too had one to share with her. That was the night the two after long deliberations reluctantly decided to part with their love affair. Both felt that it was unfair on their part to have a concurrent love with another while they were in love with each other. Probably both felt that the freshness was more valuable than durability.

In the meantime, Peter had to go on a foreign assignment to Europe. He left the US as well as Jennifer. He promised that he would marry her soon on his return. Although in the initial days of their physical separation, Peter kept speaking to her or texting. But after a period of one year, he started withdrawing from Jennifer, and eventually, the love affair came to its natural end. Another year passed and Jennifer received a message from Peter informing her he was married to a European girl and settled down in Germany. For Jennifer, it was no shock or surprise. But somehow she felt that she should reestablish contact with Carter. But Carter made it clear that he had already married Linda and expressed his inability to accommodate her.

Jennifer left her profession and took up social service. She visited churches and orphanages. She came across many poor people who were struggling to meet their ends. Jennifer helped some of them with some money and fetched jobs for some of them. Jennifer was fortunate to have inherited a big property from her late father and that was how she could survive, doing only social services. After a few years, she happened to listen to a talk on philosophy by one Indian saint that was aired on a radio station. Instantly she got fired and ignited to learn about Indian philosophy. She met some of the Indians residing in her apartment and through them came to appreciate the spiritual richness of India. After some time Jennifer developed a keen interest in Indian spiritualism that she could not focus on her social services. She sold her property and transferred half of the sale value to a trust that helped orphans and the destitute.

Jennifer got herself updated with the spiritual culture of India by going through the net, and listening to many spiritual discourses by Indian philosophers and saints in the US. It took her almost three years to grasp the basic Indian spiritual philosophy and in the process, her attitude towards life changed drastically. Then, she felt the urge to visit India. She visited India and went to places like Saint Ramana Maharishi’s ashram at Thiruvannamalai in South India and many other such places of the spiritual environment in India. Finally, she came to Rishikesh and was impressed by its serene and beautiful environment, especially by the enchanting Ganges river. She stayed in an ashram that abutted the Ganges river. She converted into a vegetarian, rather her mindset and activities naturally made her vegetarian. In order to understand the Indian scriptures better, she learned the Sanskrit language for three years. In the next six years, she groomed herself as a spiritual scholar. In the meantime she picked up the local language, Hindi rather easily. She was glad to interact and speak with the locals and that made her learn the Hindi language quickly. She could appreciate the existence of nectar in Indian spiritualism, she plunged into it and immersed in it. She was curious to know the purpose of her life and started deep diving into her inner self. In the next three years, she established her own ashram on the banks of the Ganges River. She named it "Serenity". Soon she started delivering talks on Indian spirituality, both in English and Hindi. She loved the language of silence advocated by most of the Indian sages and saints.

Soon Jennifer became a well-known Indian-based foreign saint in the local region and in other places of India, as well. Many foreigners who visited India on a tour package or spiritual quest went to her ashram, to listen to her eloquent, sweet, and well-articulated talks on Indian spiritualism. Hearing her talks, a sizable number of foreigners turned into spiritual seekers.

One day Jennifer delivered a talk on “the essence of spiritualism”. The audience consisted of mostly foreigners. After her talk, most of the audience left the hall, a few came to her to exchange a few words. After that Jennifer was about to proceed to her room and was stunned to see a man in front of her. She could not believe that it was none other than Carter, her ex-boyfriend. For the first time, Jennifer felt a shock wave in her. Carter told her that his wife Linda had divorced him.

Carter expressed his willingness to stay with Jennifer in the ashram. Jennifer never ever dreamt of meeting Carter again and could not comprehend what was happening to her. She thought for some time and told him to come back after a week’s time. Carter visited her ashram after a week’s time but could not find Jennifer. He tried to ascertain the whereabouts of Jennifer but no one could give any clear information about the whereabouts of Jennifer. All he could get to know was that she created a trust to manage the funds and affairs of her ashram and had left Rishikesh. No one could tell about her whereabouts. Carter then went to nearby ashrams in search of her as well as peace. After struggling and roaming aimlessly for a year, he found himself in an ashram as one of its inmates. Carter became a saint. He started to learn the Sanskrit language to understand and appreciate Indian spirituality in depth. But he was at a loss because Jennifer left him without even disclosing where she was going. In the process of learning the spiritual discourses of various saintly personalities in Rishikesh, Carter decided to forget his desire to meet Jennifer again. Having lost his parents soon after his marriage to Linda, and having been neglected by his elder brother, Carter became a detached person. He started feeling more and more at peace with joy tips filling his heart and soul.

Jennifer is presently residing in Thiruvannamalai, the place where Saint Ramana Maharishi lived for more than fifty years, as one of the most revered and high esteemed spiritual seekers of India. She is in the process of establishing her own ashram and continues to deliver her spiritual talks to many Indians as well spiritual seekers from foreign countries. But she is not aware Carter had become Saint Carter and that he is still residing in Rishikesh and is seeking to find peace in himself. She believed that Carter must have gone back home.

The only question is whether the two would ever meet each other. Only time will tell.